The invention relates to a mowing machine comprising at least three mower members which are arranged rotatably about substantially vertical axes on a supporting beam having accommodated therein drive means for driving the mower members. The supporting beam, during operation, extends substantially transversely to the direction of operative travel. The drive means are driven, near the two ends of the supporting beam, by means of mechanically intercoupled drive shafts.
A mowing machine of this type is disclosed in the Netherlands Patent Specification No. 171,955, which describes a disc mower comprising mowing discs provided above a supporting beam, the two outermost mowing discs including a drum-shaped crop guide. Above, and parallel to the supporting beam, there is disposed a main drive shaft which is connected via gear wheels to two secondary drive shafts. Each secondary drive shaft is accommodated in one of the drum-shaped crop guides and is connected to an outermost mowing disc. Thus, the two outermost mowing discs on the supporting beam are driven. A series of meshing gear wheels is arranged in the supporting beam in such a manner that each one of the other mowing discs is driven from one of the secondary drive shafts. Preferably, the mowing disc which relative to the hauling vehicle, is the outermost disc, is driven via on of the secondary drive shafts and the remaining mowing discs are driven via the other such drive shaft. The reason for this is that the mowing disc most remote from the hauling vehicle is loaded to the highest extent due to the presence of the crop guide in the thick of the crop.